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One of the most common questions when asked about general auto repair and maintenance is, “How often should I change my oil?” Changing your oil is very important to your vehicles general maintenance and you should do it regularly. Your car is a big purchase. Behind your house, it is your next biggest investment so it’s vital you take good care of it and keep it well maintained. A well-maintained car can end up saving you thousands of dollars in the long run. Keep it running long after your final payment and you will save a LOT of money. You may have heard different time frames for when you need to change your oil. The most common one used to be every 3,000 miles or every 3 months (whichever was first). Nowadays, vehicles technology is far advanced and general oil quality is much better than it used to be meaning your average oil change will last longer. So, the real answer is that there is no real set standard. However, we can tell you some things ... read more

Today’s cars, light trucks, and sport-utility vehicles are high-tech marvels with digital dashboards, oxygen sensors, electronic computers, uni-body construction, and more. They run better, longer, and more efficiently than models of years past. But when it comes to repairs, some things stay the same. The following tips should help you along the way: Do your homework before taking your vehicle in for repairs or service. Read the owner’s manual to learn about the vehicles systems and components. Follow the recommended service schedules. Keep a log of all repairs and service. When you think about it, you know your car better than anyone else. You drive it every day and know how it feels and sounds when everything is right. So don’t ignore its warning signals. Use all of your senses to inspect your car frequently. Check for: Unusual sounds, odors, drips, leaks, smoke, warning lights, gauge readings. Changes in acceleration, engine performance, gas mileage, flu ... read more

In 2017, Wilhelm will continue our annual Pet Food Drive. We have once again teamed up with Chuck Waggin' Pet Food Pantry during the month of November as a perfect way to give back to our animals who need help getting through the holiday period. Here's all you need to do; Bring in two cans of non-perishable pet food items and Wilhelm will give you $15 off any service or repair at any of our seven locations valley wide. This is our fourth consecutive year running our Pet Food Drive, and you have helped make it a major success. Overall, it is our 18th annual food drive! Just last year, we donated almost 100 pounds of pet food to shelters. In 2016, we donated even more!!! With your help, we are looking to exceed last year’s total! Absolutely anything you can give will help us reach our goals together. Give us a call if you want to hear more about our offer and please help spread the word for a good cause. Philianthropy has always been a key part in our 89-year-old business a ... read more

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It has been a great month with regards to giving back to the community and our customers have really come through. Throughout the last couple of weeks, we have been running a couple of charity events simultaneously. The first one we ran was to do with helping out those victims of Hurricane Harvey. Times like this is where we all need to stand together and I feel our customers have helped out tremendously. We partnered up with local printing company ABD and “We support Texas” to provide 7 drop off points across the valley. All Wilhelm customers who donated anything from the list we eligible for $10 off any service or repair. There was an overwhelming response. Here are a few pictures from around the stores of our guys with Dave Delvecchio, who is the president of ABD and put the whole thing in place. We would like to take this chance to thank anybody who donated and huge Thanks to Dave and his team for putting this whole thin ... read more

With the record temperatures upon us, many of you will be thinking about getting out of town within the next month or so. We put together a checklist for you of things you will need to take care of before setting off. Here are a few minor maintenance issues to have a look over before you get going. Check your tire pressure – Easy to do but vitally important. Depending on the distance you are planning to go, lots of highway miles can really add heat to your tires, (especially in 115 degree + heat). Most vehicle manuals recommend going slightly higher than usual if you are planning a long trip. It is better to be on the safe side of things. It’s always worth having a spare tire too just for peace of mind more than anything. Lots of newer cars do not carry a spare and have all “run flat” tires. Battery Maintenance – Battery maintenance is huge in the heat of Arizona in the summer. Double check your battery is charged otherwis ... read more

When our venture into the hybrid market started back in 2014, we committed to a lot of different things. One of these areas we choose to focus on saving energy throughout the company as a whole. Once we decided to go into the hybrid market we also saw the importance of becoming a "greener" company. Our recent blog topics touched on how we can help "Save The World" by switching over to a Hybrid or electric vehicle. Obviously that's a stretch but with the world struggling with pollution and the constantly talked about topic of global warming, we thought we would get involved and that was a big focus for our design team when we broke ground for our newest location over in Happy Valley. Performance Tune up To help with this we contacted ... read more

​ There are certain things you just cannot handle in the Arizona summer heat. AC in your car is certainly one of them. If you are travelling to and from work every day, it is vital your car AC system is in good standing. With 100 degree + temperatures just around the corner (sorry to remind you), having your cars AC inspected and blowing cold can be the difference between a smooth, comfortable commute to work and a disastrous journey. Here we worked with Mike from our Happy Valley store to discuss the main issues with your AC system, how you can prevent it, and what to do when it does go wrong. The first thing he touches on is the cabin filter. One thing you may not know is your cabin filter can affect your allergies. A lot of the newer vehicles are now using charcoal filters, which do a much better job of filtering the air from outside. The charcoal filters catch the dirt and retain it so it does not affect your allergies. The picture below shows the difference between filte ... read more

Predicting the future with anything is often not worth trying. If you look back, how much has really changed over the past 10 years? The answer is pretty much everything. This includes the automotive world. Now we are using electric and hybrid cars more and more with many automobile manufactures going away from the "only gas powered market." This blog looks at where we might be turn to in the future. It covers everything regarding automotive repair as well as self-driving cars and what are the main positives and negatives moving into a world of the unknown. Many people have their own opinion when it comes to self-driving cars. There are obvious advantages that come with that but also not everyone would feel safe in an environment when they have so little control. For those of you who commute, imagine b ... read more

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Picture: Under the hood. Today we will learn about one of the main parts of an engine’s valve train. In an engine many parts work together and achieve the goal of converting chemical energy of fuel into mechanical energy. These parts are bolted together and the combination of all these parts is known as engine. Today I am going to tell you about one of the key components required to make an engine operate. To control the inlet and exhaust of internal combustion engine, valves are used. The number of valves in an engine depends on the number of cylinders. Multiple valves are used for each cylinder some for inlet of air-fuel mixture inside the cylinder and others for exhaust of combustion gases. The valves are fitted in the port at the cylinder head by use of strong spring. This spring keeps them closed. Each valve within the cylinder head has at the least one spring. The valve spring exerts stress against the valve retainer to maintain the valve closed. When the rocker arm in a pu ... read more

Trucks are becoming a more popular choice than ever when people are purchasing vehicles. There is a big selection on offer nowadays and people are taking full advantage. A lot of trucks come originally with the front end lower than the back end. This is where it may be important to some customers to have their truck “leveled out”. This is mainly to do with aesthetics on how attractive the truck looks and with the truck leveled out, you are bale to put on bigger, more aggressive tires. Here is our master tech, Mike Reynolds to explain more; YOU TUBE VIDEO. For the F150 we worked on, the process was pretty straightforward but it can vary depending on different truck makes and models. This process was easier because for the Ford F150 pictured, there was only one part needed to complete the service. We needed a spacer to be placed above the strut to give the front end a slight lift and level it all out. For other trucks such as Dodge Ram and Chevvy’s the process is a di ... read more